This year, the Cisco Clean Access Agent was instituted to make Internet access faster and more secure around campus. Around 90 percent of the 2,804 undergraduate students rely on wireless Internet, ITS employees say.

Students have expressed a variety of responses while adjusting to the new connection system and the extra login time required to access AirWes. Ezra Farber ’09, who favors the University’s former login system, Bluesocket, vocalized frustration.

“It’s a pain in the petuty!” Farber said.

At the same time, Mac-user Al Fertig ’10 says the new system has had little impact on his own Internet use.

“It hasn’t affected me,” Fertig said.

Four years ago, the University utilized a “homegrown” program that would check for viruses and compatibility with the Residential Network on students’ computers. According to Ganesan Ravishanker, Associate Vice President for Information Technology Services (ITS), that system ultimately did not match the demands of the network and had to be abandoned.

“It was becoming apparent that we could not keep up with it,” Ravishanker said.

The University then transitioned to the Bluesocket program. Bluesocket’s purpose was to verify logins to computers with an authentic Wesleyan account. In addition to logging into the network, the Cisco Clean Access Agent also checks to make sure that each computer has the most current software. The University decided to replace the program in August of 2007.

“[The new system] makes sure you have a clean machine and you connect to the Internet,” Ravishanker said. “The Cisco Clean Access Agent is the most prevalent and reliable solution.” Network privacy and security were central to ITS’s decision to switch services.

“In some sense, it indirectly helped us from preventing the hackers [in] invading our network,” Ravishanker said. “Our primary goal is network health.”

However, some students say they are not aware of the reason behind the change.

“It sucks,” said Jordan Halpern ’10. “I don’t fully understand what the point of it is. I would like it if the reasoning behind it was explained.”

Ravishanker ensured that the purpose of the Cisco Clean Access Agent serves the interest of the student body.

“It’s basically there as a ‘gatekeeper’ for making sure that the network is performing,” Ravishanker said. “It doesn’t do anything else. People don’t have to be suspicious of us invading your computers. It just does security checks.”

He also encouraged students to embrace the new system.

“The Cisco Clean Access Agent is there as a way to protect our network,” Ravishanker said. “In the end, we feel it is good for the students to have a cleaner machine.”

Both the ITS and the student-run Helpdesk have attempted to assist confused students since the system was introduced last month. Although both PC and Macintosh computers must participate in the login, Macintosh users currently benefit less from the system because the computers automatically perform software updates. The Cisco Clean Access Agent not only accesses the Internet for PC users but also makes sure that the software programs are current.

Adina Teibloom ’10 experienced a stressful transition to the new Cisco program.

“It broke my computer,” Teibloom explained. “I had to take it to ITS to get it fixed. Macs don’t need all the security.”

Craig Ewer ’10, however, says online security outweighs a little inconvenience.

“I think it’s worth it,” Ewer said.